City are back in European action against the Bundesliga outfit at the Puskas Stadium in Budapest with Pep Guardiola making five changes in total from the side which won 1-0 away at Arsenal last weekend.
Aymeric Laporte makes his 100th appearance for the Club while Kyle Walker and Rodrigo also return to the starting line-up.
Kevin De Bruyne, John Stones, Oleks Zinchenko, Fernandinho and Riyad Mahrez all revert to the bench.
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Sergio Aguero is again also amongst the substitutes as he continues his comeback after an injury-hit year.
Nathan Ake is once more the only senior absentee. The Dutch defender, who hasn’t played since our Boxing Day win over Newcastle, remains in Manchester to continue his recovery period.
Tonight’s match will take place in Hungary because of coronavirus restrictions with Monchengladbach, currently eighth in the German Bundesliga, the designated ‘home’ team.
teamS
CITY XI: Ederson, Walker, Dias, Laporte, Cancelo, Rodrigo, Gundogan, Bernardo, Sterling, Jesus, Foden
Subs: Steffen, Carson, Stones, Aguero, Zinchenko, De Bruyne, Torres, Mendy, Fernandinho, Mahrez, Garcia, Doyle
GLADBACH XI: Sommer, Kramer, Zakaria, Stindl, Plea, Lainer, Hofmann, Bensebaini, Ginter, Elvedi, Nehaus.
SUBS: Sippel, Grun, Lang, Herrmann, Thuram, Wolf, Beyer, Traore, Wendt, Lazaro, Jantschke, Embolo.
City tactics
Though fluidity and flexibility have become the tactical hallmarks of City’s magnificent run of form, the platform for our wonderful results have come from a compelling 4-3-3 set up.
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Goalkeeper Ederson will be protected by the back four of Walker, Laporte, Dias and Cancelo.
Rodrigo will provide the midfield shield with lkay Gundogan and Bernardo Silva also set to operate from the engine room.
Gabriel Jesus will provide the striking focal point with Phil Foden and skipper Raheem Sterling also looking set to be deployed up-front.
Guardiola was also crystal clear about the focus and objectives for his players this evening, with the focus and guiding principles that have underpinned our superb form, remaining intact.
“We’re going to play this like we’ve played the last games this season, in all competitions - nothing special,” said Guardiola.
“We’re going to try to win, to get a good result and then afterwards we are going to think about West Ham on Saturday.
“This is the only target. It’s the same process as I’ve said to the players for a long time - think of the next one and then, after that, the next one.”
Victory this evening would also see City create a new Club record of 12 consecutive away wins across all competitions and also extend our remarkable winning run to 19 games.
Stats
City are unbeaten in our last 25 games in all competitions (W22 D3), since a 2-0 Premier League loss at Tottenham on 21 November.
Borussia Monchengladbach and City are facing each other for the seventh time - this is the most games for both teams against a single opponent in European competition.
City are unbeaten against Borussia Monchengladbach in the Champions League (won three, drew one). However, the only previous encounter in the knockout stages of a European competition saw Gladbach beat City 4-2 on aggregate in the quarter-finals of the 1978-79 UEFA Cup.
City have reached the knockout stages of the Champions League for the eighth consecutive season, the longest current run for an English club - we will be aiming to make it to the quarter-finals for the fourth straight campaign.
It has been 43 years since Borussia Monchengladbach were in the knockout stages of the European Cup/Champions League. They lost 4-2 in the semi-finals of the 1977-78 European Cup against Liverpool.
Manchester City have won each of our past three away games in the Champions League last 16 - 4-0 v Basel in February 2018, 3-2 v Schalke in February 2019 and 2-1 v Real Madrid in February 2020.
City accrued 16 points in this season’s Champions League group stage; the joint-most of any English side in a single group stage, along with Arsenal in 2005-06 (finalists), Manchester United in 2007-08 (winners) and Tottenham Hotspur in 2017-18 (last 16).
It is 526 minutes since City conceded a UEFA Champions League goal, Luis Díaz’s 14th-minute opener for Porto on Matchday 1.
City have scored 48 goals in our last 19 UEFA Champions League matches; over the last three seasons their record is W18 D4 L3 with 64 goals scored and 22 conceded.
Pep Guardiola‘s team have won nine of our last 14 away European matches (D3 L2), both defeats coming in England; the last away game we lost abroad was at Shakhtar Donetsk (1-2) on Matchday 6 of the 2017/18 UEFA Champions League.
City have won our last three away games in the round of 16, and four of our seven at this stage overall (L3). Each time we have won away we have qualified and each time we have lost away we have gone out.
Six City games will be shown live on BT Sport in the next month - including our Champions League game against Borussia Monchengladbach - so if you sign up to a BT Sport Monthly Pass then you get six games for £25 (UK viewers only).
